The Food Recovery Challenge: Earth's life saver

Photo of presenters Luke Wolfgang, Athena Lee Bradley and Kara Thomas (From left to right)

Today marks the start of this year’s annual Focus Frostburg event. For today’s events I covered the presentation and discussion given by Athena Bradley from the Northeast Recycling Council and Luke Wolfgang, the Sustainability Coordinator of the program and US EPA for Region three. The discussion was held in the Lane University Center room 232. The presenters were accompanied by Kara Thomas, the supervisor for the program. The presentation was about Sustainability and how recycling food can be a great deal of help for the environment. The presentation focused on how small towns have taken part of the Food Recovery program which Wolfgang explained as “a recognition-based program used to educate people and to increase food waste diversion.” The program asks big businesses to report their trash disposal annually to find ways of making compost for animals more efficiently.

The Food Recovery challenge has been a growing change in many small towns like in Vermont and Maryland and its main goals are to raise awareness of waste disposal and to have food for animals that would lead to healthier living for the environment and people themselves. The process is as follows: 1. People recycle their food and other recyclable waste products. 2. The waste is then turned into compost for animals like chickens to eat. 3. When farmers prepare the chickens for consumers the cycle begins all over again. It’s quite an easy program to partake in and isn’t hurting anyone to try it and help the earth as well.

Photo of presenter Athena Lee Bradley speaking on the importance of recycling during the presentation

The main organization mentioned throughout the discussion was the Grow Compost of Vermont. This is one of the organizations that’s helping in food recovery and compost production. Athena Bradley stated that “Small towns spend so much money for trash disposal.” One of the main issues with recycling waste is that many small towns are charged to dispose of trash. If these towns must pay so much just to remove waste, then people won’t worry too much about recycling for compost. Bradley also stated, “The food race problem is a matter of convenience.” What Bradley means by this is that people are doing what’s convenient for them. So, if you’re someone who doesn’t recycle and there’s no real reason why you don’t do it is due to convenience. Doing something that’s out of the way of what you’re used to makes people not want to do it. Most people just put all their waste together and dispose of it rather than taking the time out to recycle and sort things accordingly.

Recycling is important, and I found that both Bradley’s and Wolfgang’s explanation of why it’s important was informational and was a good way to spread the word about the procedures they’ve taken to get more people to take action. Bradley emphasized on the fact that local food is fresher and healthier because it’s mostly from healthy produce and recycled materials that make for a healthier environment. Everyone should think about the long-term effects of recycling and how could help not other others but themselves. People should take more interest into things that could help the environment around them and whatever it takes to have a healthy Earth should be worth it. For more information on the Grow Compost of Vermont please click the link to the website.

Focus Frostburg and Food Waste

Focus Frostburg is a yearly fair that informs us of sustainability and climate awareness in our surrounding areas. This fair welcomes not only the students of Frostburg but also faculty members, and the people of Frostburg. In LUC 232 there were a series of presentations discussing certain issues like food system efforts, food waste, and organic compost. Sherry Frick, a member of the Western Maryland Food Council discussed the purpose of the group, their overall mission, and the goals that they have set to achieve. The Western Maryland Food Council started in 2015 thanks to a grant that was awarded to them by the Town Creek Foundation. The purpose of the group is to bring people together and identify problems in the food system and work to find a solution. Their mission is to bring together diverse stakeholders to integrate the aspects of the food system to sustain and enhance the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of Western Maryland. These members of the WMFC come out of different health systems, academic organizations, certain government officials, and food producers and distributors. Sherry emphasized that, "together we are stronger then we are when working independently." An interesting success story that also was told was a campaign called "Apples for All". With this campaign, Sherry Frick as well as The Salvation Army harvested an estimated 6,000 pounds of apples from a nearby orchard and delivered them to homeless shelters, schools, local food markets, and senior centers. Sherry got together volunteers to hand pick these apples and deliver them. Sherry added that, "its really important for us to try and get food for the people that need it." This group is constantly looking for members and even helpful information that will bring a solution to this overall problem which is food access. To learn more about the Western Maryland Food Council click here

Another presentation that was displayed was by Steven Birchfield, a member of the Prince George's County Organic Composting Facility. What was discussed was the overall meaning of this facility and what we can do as consumers to help. This compost facility processes over 50,000 tons of material annually. Yard waste, including grass clippings, leaves, brush, small tree limbs, Christmas trees, and even food scraps are collected from about 164,000 households in the county and delivered to the facility. Once the yard waste is delivered, it is placed in windrows and processed into compost. This compost is then sold to retailers in bulk. The revenue from the sale of the material is then returned to the county to offset the cost of the operation of composting. The whole idea of reduce, reuse, and recycle was being constantly thrown into the discussion. Steven explained, "this is all a constant circle" when it comes to composting yard waste. He also wanted to make it known that "composting is just a step". He expressed that we don't have to send our food waste to them for us to help. We can do as little as putting a banana peel in the soil outside. It's going to take a lot more to get where we need to be when it comes to how we use or "reuse" our materials. To learn more about composting yard waste click here. 

Wasted! Focus Frostburg.

Focus Frostburg

Wasted! The Story of Food Waste.

The Focus Frostburg event that was attended was the film “Wasted! The Story of Food Waste,” followed by a discussion hosted by Siera Wigfield that was not attended because it started more than a half hour late. The film not only provided statistics on how much food is wasted and the monetary value of the wasted food, but it also provided information on several alternative solutions to food waste and examples of situations where these solutions work successfully.

The movie was fascinating. The statistics were shocking, and the interviews were enlightening. The movie included interviews with multiple chefs, farmers, and everyday people, as well as experts in sustainability.

When the movie was supposed to start, they encountered some problems. No one knew where the DVD was, or if it was already set up to play or not. Once they got that figured out, and the DVD cued up, the Director of Dining Services, David Glenn, gave a short speech on what Chesapeake Dining Hall has done to join the University’s sustainability program in the last few years. Chesapeake has come up with quite a few sustainability programs. It has been almost four years since their sustainability initiative began and in that short time period they have started pre and post-composting. Pre-composting is when the food that doesn’t get used is composted and post is when the little scraps of food left on a plane when it is put on the belt is composted as well. To stop food waste, they are also starting a program with the local food bank: for each pound of food the University receives (instead of being thrown away), they will donate a pound of food to the food bank. And, starting next semester, students will also be able to donate unused meal plans to the food pantry.

Some of the statistics are surprising. According to the movie, one third of food produced in America goes uneaten. That means that about 40% of food is wasted. 90% of the wasted food goes to landfills-that’s one trillion dollars that gets sent to a landfill. On average, one billion tons of food gets wasted, yet there are still people that go to bed hungry. One in five kids in America don’t get enough to eat. A lot of food gets wasted due to supermarkets rejecting it because it doesn’t look perfect.

Some solutions the video suggests are supermarkets such as Daily Table. Daily Table is a nonprofit supermarket that sells healthy foods that are still good but are past their “best by” or “used by” date. These foods are still good even though they’re past the date, and usually end up being thrown in the garbage. Daily Table saves them from the landfill and sells them at cheaper prices. “Best by” or “sell by” dates do not mean that the food is bad and can no longer be consumed by the date, as is the usual assumption of consumers. It is a date manufacturers place on foods and such in order to clear out supermarket shelves. Supermarkets buy way more products than they can sell in such a short amount of time. Once the “best by” date comes, supermarkets are forced to throw an abundance of product away and buy more.

This video is educational, and interesting. It’s also disgusting. At one point, one of the chefs ate pork uterus. In spite of that, the movie is worth watching. You learn more than you realize, and a lot of the commentary is hilarious. At one point, a fish strew is referred to as "stew of reject fish." At another point, when asking for clarification, a man asks: "Yeast stops bread from being wasted and allows us to be wasted instead?" And one quote at the beginning is very thought-provoking. While discussing what environmentalists tell humanity they have to do in order to survive, one man says "I don't know that we deserve to live." If you aren't interested in the educational side of the movie, the commentary alone is worth watching for.

A Worldwide Automotive Revolution

Dr. Skott Brill, a philosophy professor at Frostburg State University, has shared his experience of buying and owning a solar-powered electric vehicle with the public in his Focus Frostburg presentation, “I’m Driving on Sunshine, Woah-oh!” Dr. Brill opened his presentation with an explanation of how he and his wife have always aimed to be environmentally mindful. “For years we’ve gotten by on one vehicle, and we felt good about it.” However, once they had a daughter to take care of, and Dr. Brill started to take up golf in his free time, they realized that they would need a second car

However, they did not like the idea of having a second car giving off emissions and harming the environment. Dr. Brill discussed his concerns with a friend, who responded by telling him about electric vehicles. This led him to research electric cars on his own time, and having a clean mode of transportation sounded like a great solution. However, there was a problem. Dr. Brill realized that “you plug in to charge the car with electricity. What’s powering that electricity? Coal.” But this did not deter him from pursuing a clean car. Instead, he decided to take his research further and came upon solar power.

About a year ago, Dr. Brill ordered twelve solar panels and installed them onto the roof of his garage. In that process, he also joined a solar co-op that aims to make solar panels more accessible to everyone. Weeks later, he received his electric car, a Chevrolet Bolt. After a year of driving his new car, Dr. Brill has shared his experiences with it. He provided charts to the audience that laid out the cost of buying and owning his solar panels and Chevy Bolt. The panels initially cost a little over $11,000, but thanks to a federal solar tax credit, the price was lowered down to around $7,000. Before installing the panels, Dr. Brill paid roughly $260 for five months of electricity. But with the help of solar panels, his electric bill has been lowered to just $60 for five months. Of course, these panels are not foolproof. He mentioned that solar panel owners cannot always rely on the panels due to the weather. In the case of a Frostburg resident, snow can blanket the panels and block them completely. However, since the panels are rather slick, the snow on them  usually melts off quickly, often before anything else.

The Chevy Bolt was priced at $40,000, but a federal tax credit lowered it to $32,500. Dr. Brill remarked how the Bolt was a quiet yet powerful machine. It is capable of going from 0 to 60 MPH in 6.3 seconds, yet it hardly makes any noise. “The Bolt is quiet, and that pleases me.” Dr. Brill says that he and his wife love their Chevy Bolt so much that they argue over who gets to drive it. “We fight over the Bolt; we don’t want to drive the Subaru.” Additionally, he mentioned that although electric vehicles are expensive to buy, their upkeep is quite cheap. While traditional cars require regular maintenance due to their internal combustion engines, electric vehicles require much less attention to keep them running smoothly.

One of the largest concerns people have with electric vehicles is their practicality for long trips, as gas stations are still much easier to find than charging stations. However, Dr. Brill has pointed out that this is changing. The Sheetz gas station in La Vale has a charging station, though it is specifically for Tesla models. Rocky Gap also has a charging station, it works for cars like the Bolt, and it is free to use. Not only that, but new apps are making electric car ownership easier. For example, ChargePoint maps out electric charging stations across the country to help electric car owners plan and make long trips. Most importantly, the time needed to fully charge and electric car is getting shorter. Today, the maximum time needed to fully charge a car is only thirty minutes.

Finally, Dr. Brill mentioned that in the coming years, electric vehicles will become more common and accessible thanks to the efforts of various governments and automakers. Countries in Europe and Asia will be requiring all new cars to be all electric powered within the next few decades. Meanwhile, automakers around the world are pledging to make several new electric cars, most within the next decade, as they are “afraid” of Tesla, according to Dr. Brill. “I do believe there is a worldwide automotive revolution going on right now,” he states. He also believes that it is possible that car manufactures could start making all-electric models of older, classic vehicles that people love. With all this in mind, it is hoped that others will follow in Dr. Brill’s footsteps and adopt solar-powered electric vehicles. “There’s a lot of doom and gloom these days, and this is the opposite.”

Dr. Brill with his Chevrolet Bolt

Anyone interested in solar power should consider visiting the Mountain Maryland Solar Co-op. Here is a link to their website: http://www.downtownfrostburg.com/mountain-maryland-solar-co-op/

Focus Frostburg, and Listen Closely!

Focus Frostburg is a yearly annual fair held in spring on campus to help raise awareness of sustainability and climate awareness. This year, the fair was hosted in the Lane University Center. The fair is free to students, faculty, and the community of Frostburg, and includes events such as seminars and walk around scavenger hunts that anyone is welcome to participate in. Focus Frostburg has presentations ranging in all issues such as food waste, natural disasters, environmental justice, many of the issues covered in the course Sustainability 155 & 455, two courses offered at Frostburg State. In LUC 109 there was a poster display made by the students of SUST155 and SUST455 for one of their final projects of the semester. Steven Meister, a student of SUST155, worked as one of the attendees of the poster display, and when asked why he was taking SUST155 he said “I took this class because I was interested in ways to make use of resources and community sustainability.” His professor, Ms. Tracy Edwards, walked him to help explain what exactly sustainability was and some topics discussed in the class. She explained, “What we try to cover in class are topics that are pretty much anything unfair. It can range from discussing about the environment to racism, and as you can see one of the posters displayed was focused on environmental racism. All of these aspects are issues that we try to emphasize are important.” One of the scavenger hunts was based around the posters made by the sustainability students, and if completed in and turned in there was a prize offered!

Another activity Focus Frostburg offered was the “Wholesome Harvest Co-op Table,” formally known as “Wholesome Harvest Co-op LLC.” Wholesome Harvest was formally a store on main street started by a local woman of Frostburg to sell healthier options for food such as vegetables and fruits. The owner could not keep up with the store due to her old age, so she attempted to ask for help from the community and was very successful in doing so. In August a public meeting at the coffee shop, “Clatter,” was held and more than fifty community members showed up to help Wholesome Harvest survive. Out of these fifty members who showed up, ten came together as a team and call themselves the “members” to the organization, who meet up weekly and continue efforts to save the store. Woody Getz, one of the ten volunteers, was the attendee at the table and was bubbly with the fact that because of their ongoing efforts, Wholesome Harvest would reopen their store in May and it would be a place where all of the Frostburg community could shop for healthy and nutritious food. When asked if he got any benefits from volunteering he answered, “I care about helping to provide the community with nutritional food. That is why I volunteer, I enjoy others having healthy options and supporting small business.”

Focus Frostburg is a great and free way for the community of Frostburg to learn about sustainability, what it is, and how important it is for us as people to address these issues and work together to solve them.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/WholesomeHarvestFrostburg/about/

Meeting Liz

Elizabeth Kegg aka as "Liz" is a transfer from Gettysburg college from Cumberland Maryland born on December 19th 1996. Elizabeth is the only child in her family which she states “Love it for Christmas, hate it for the summer" as she explained Christmas she gets all the gifts to herself but summer trips be lonely. Elizabeth favorite food is Vanilla Ice cream according to her "can eat with almost every meal" Elizabeth is now a senior here at Frostburg leaving Gettysburg because of her major. Elizabeth works in our school book store for about 15 hours during the week. Elizabeth is a Visuals art major with a focus in graph design and photography with a minor in art history. Elizabeth was inspired growing up by her farther who loves to paint. Elizabeth was once a cheerleader in high school mainly because of her friends where she attended Bishop Walsh Catholic. Elizabeth loves to travel and even got the chance to travel to Nicaragua to study which she mentions "I love it I would move there" during her stay she got the chance to hike up a volcano with no paper work or waiver which is amazing to me. Elizabeth seemed mighty brave with the exception of fear of spiders, Mexico was the  place she chose for any place she could travel for free because of her favorite holiday their "Day of the Dead', she is a big fan of Halloween who worn at least 3 different costumes this past year. Elizabeth has multiple tattoos with receiving her first one in November of 2016, one of her tattoos is of a ghost that shows her passion for Halloween and another of a song lyric(not dead yet)written from her favorite music artist himself Frank tuner. On the weekends she loves to travel and chill on Netflix, her favorite show on Netflix is "Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “Elizabeth is now rushing for her honors fraternity.  Me and Elizabeth both share in common were not really a party person but would attend the bar occasionally and don't have the attention span for movies.

 

Mason’s 9 Month Break from College: for Better or for Worse? By Lisa Wray, ENGL 336

Mason on the back of his 5 year old 2008 Toyota Tacoma

     Arthur Mason Weatherholt is a junior transfer from Allegany College of Maryland who took an impromptu 9 month break this past summer and fall after three and a half years of being part of the multimedia program at Allegany, with a focus on photo, video, and audio production. “My initial reaction was ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’ I could’ve put in a really hard semester of work.” he said admittedly, but in hindsight Weatherholt said “I needed a break for me, not for anyone else.” It has become a national trend for college students to take breaks, or what researchers call a “gap year”, defined by the Gap Year Association as "An experiential semester or year…in order to deepen practical, professional, and personal awareness." Although Weatherholt’s time away from the classroom was limited to 9 months, not the typical twelve, he owns it. It’s all documented here. 

     Initially, he worked at Puccini, a pizzeria in east Cumberland, and was able to save enough money to buy new camera gear and a new computer. From there on out, Weatherholt was able to dedicate more time to his photography and get a level of experiential learning he never would have gotten in the classroom. Whether it be the first ever Allegany County Fairgrounds RallyCross debut or a Sunday road trip with some old friends, Weatherholt had his Nikon D3200 in hand. “I like candid photos…I do it for the experience, not money. If someone gets a cool photo that makes them smile, I’m all for it.” Alexandra, Weatherholt’s girlfriend says, “If I had to describe Mason in one word, it would be adventurous.” When he wasn’t busy photographing someone else’s tuck, Weatherholt was taking pictures of his 2008 Toyota Tacoma which he has owned for over five years. Only those who have driven with him will know of his collection of Velcro patches that line to roof of his truck. The collection currently stands at 134 patches with an all-time favorite being a “…sunflower that my girlfriend gave me in November…” Weatherholt says with a smile. So far Weatherholt likes Frostburg State University and said “At first [the break] was a bad thing, [but] I’m happy where I’m at.” He concludes.